How does chiropractic care work

Harry Park is a Chiropractor at Healthspace Kingsford. Harry is dedicated to helping individual patients pain-free and assists them to reach the goal of a healthier lifestyle. If you would like Dr Harry to assess your spine, please contact the Kingsford clinic on Adjustment back pain chiropractic spine health sydney.

Get our top 3 resources to improving your upper and lower body mobility, plus our sleep essentials guide from our integrated team of health practitioners. Do you have particular pain or symptoms but are not sure which health treatment or practitioner is right for you?

Please get in touch and one of our practitioner team will respond to you with personalised assistance. Coronovirus update: Click here to access our new "Telehealth" service, face to face health consultations over the internet. Skip to content. So, what exactly happens with a chiropractic adjustment allowing patients to feel better? Simply, the mechanism is this: Restricted joint movement leads to interrupted joint signal towards the brain.

Chiropractic care is centered around spinal manipulation. They may also provide services such as postural testing and analysis, as well as others designed to promote nutrition and healthful exercise.

An estimated 74 percent of Americans with pain in this area have used chiropractic care at some point in their treatment. Results of a review cited by the center suggest that spinal manipulation may be useful for treating back pain, migraine headaches, whiplash , and other conditions affecting the upper and lower extremities. Like other forms of treatment, chiropractic care will not benefit all injuries.

Several myths surround this question. One myth is that chiropractors only treat back pain. In fact, chiropractic care can also help to heal pain in the foot, elbow, shoulder, and neck. The same review cited by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health concluded that chiropractic treatment is not useful in treating:. Authors of the review failed to find definitive evidence that chiropractic care treated musculoskeletal conditions, such as fibromyalgia , temporomandibular joint disorders, and mid-back pain.

Chiropractors also do not treat traumatic injuries, such as bone fractures. A chiropractor will usually perform an X-ray to ensure that treatment will not worsen a traumatic injury. A review included 17 years of studies involving spinal manipulation and mobilization, which is a more passive form of manipulation. The authors concluded that treatment improved both function and pain for up to 6 weeks. The American College of Physicians recommend that those with lower back pain use a variety of non-pharmacological treatments, including spinal manipulation.

Researchers generally agree that more studies are needed to determine the ideal length and frequency of chiropractic sessions and to identify what injuries may benefit from specific treatments. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health reports that severe complications may include worsening pain and cauda equina syndrome, which involves nerve damage in the lower spinal cord.

According to the American Chiropractic Association, most discomfort and soreness subsides within 24 hours of spinal manipulation. The World Health Organization WHO state that it is unsafe for people with certain health conditions to undergo chiropractic manipulation.

These conditions include :. An aspiring chiropractor must spend thousands of hours studying before obtaining a license. In , an estimated 47, chiropractors were practicing in the U. Chiropractic care is drug-free and non-invasive, and it may treat some musculoskeletal problems. Some people experience minor side effects for a few days after chiropractic adjustment.

These may include headaches, fatigue or pain in the parts of the body that were treated. Chiropractic adjustment can be effective in treating low back pain, although much of the research done shows only a modest benefit — similar to the results of more-conventional treatments.

Some studies suggest that spinal manipulation may also be effective for headaches and other spine-related conditions, such as neck pain. Not everyone responds to chiropractic adjustments. A lot depends on your particular situation. If your symptoms don't begin to improve after several weeks of treatments, chiropractic adjustment might not be the best option for you. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission.

This content does not have an English version. This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Chiropractic adjustment Open pop-up dialog box Close. Chiropractic adjustment During the adjustment, you may be asked to lie on a specially designed table. Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Share on: Facebook Twitter.